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5 Wackiest New Year's Celebrations!

Firstly a BIG Happy Khmer New Year - In Cambodia we celebrate the new year for not 1 but 3 whole days with some weird and wonderful traditions, there is flour being thrown all over one another, water bombs, young people just riding around on scooters beeping their horns and of course the mandatory beer swilling, dancing and karaoke that accompanies any good Cambodian party (after your visit to the pagoda to make your offerings and prayers of course)!

This is just one crazy tradition and got me thinking about what other weird and wonderful new year traditions there are around the world so this week I bring you 5 of the wackiest new year traditions!

Thailand’s Songkram - every year in April (the same time as Khmer New Year) Thailand braces itself for a national water fight! Songkram is traditionally a time where you wash down buddha statues as well as the hands of elders to enable you to go into the new year with a clean spirit however it has now grown into a national drenching!

Fancy a FRESH start to the New Year - join about 30,000 people in the Nederlands and take a dive into the freezing cold ocean on new year’s day!!! This tradition was started by one man in 1960 and continues to grow ever year. Not for the faint hearted!!!!!

If cross-dressing is your thing you need to head to Ecuador where men dress as women to represent the ‘widow’ of the year that has passed. On top of this they make life sized dummies representing all the misfortunes of the year that has passed and at middnight they burn them on the streets in order to let go of the past year and welcome in the new one!

Aside from the Hogmanay (night of candles) celebrations that you will find all over Scotland they also have a tradition called ‘first footer’. This is where the family believes that the first person to set foot in your house on new year’s day will set the families fortune for the coming year. So... you hope that he is tall, dark and handsome and it is even better luck if he is bringing some sort of gift. People will subtly ‘arrange’ the appropriate first footer to ensure good fortune for the coming year.

Want to know how the Danish determine their fortunes for the coming year and/or how popular they are? The go outside their front door on new year’s day and see how many plates are smashed on their doorstep!! This tradition see’s neighbors smashing crockery in front of their friends houses to bring them good fortune!

Have you ever been a part of a crazy new year celebration? I would love to hear from you! Hit me up in the comments section below and be sure to sign up for weekly updates below if you haven’t already and share the love with your family and friends. Until next week, when I will be coming to you live from Kep, stay awesome!